During his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee he did not have any contact with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign. That was a lie. He met directly with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He also explicitly told the committee that he was unaware of any contacts between the Russians and anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign:
At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.
“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
Now we know that, too, was a lie.
Sessions — a top policy adviser to the Trump campaign last year — has flummoxed lawmakers with his accounts of his own contacts with Russian officials during the campaign. Now he faces new scrutiny about how much he knew about the adviser, George Papadopoulos, who has since pleaded guilty for lying to investigators about his own attempts to parlay contacts with the Russian government into an advantage for the Trump campaign.
Papadopoulos told authorities that he urged Trump — in a meeting that included Sessions — to travel to Russia for a meeting with Putin. Sessions reportedly shot down the proposal, but he later told congressional investigators he had no awareness of any Trump campaign contacts with Russian officials.
Next week he’s going to get a chance to clear things up when testifies at a House Judiciary Committee.
From Reuters:
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is due to testify before a congressional committee next week, three sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, offering Democrats a chance to question him about his past statements on President Donald Trump’s campaign exchanges with Russian intermediaries.
Sessions’ testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, which has not been publicly announced, was confirmed by a Justice Department spokesman and two congressional aides.
The beauty of this particular committee meeting is that it is an open session, unlike the closed session he’ll be testifying in on the same day:
The open hearing, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 14, is part of the committee’s regular oversight of the Justice Department, but Russia appears almost certain to be a topic.
Separately, Sessions is due to appear in a closed session before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 14, a source familiar with that panel’s plans said.
Buckle up, buttercup. It’s about to get very interesting.